What was the outcome in mind?

Double the flying time of Australia’s fleet of ARH attack helicopters.

Why was this project important?

The ARH Tiger helicopter is a major defence capability investment for Australia. At around $50M each, the ARH Tiger provides the Army with one of the most sophisticated aircraft reconnaissance capabilities in the world.

We were requested by the Commonwealth of Australia to assist its Army Aviation Branch and Airbus Helicopters. Together, the task was to generate greater value to our armed forces by improving the cost of ownership of the Army Reconnaissance Helicopter Fleet.

At the time we were engaged, the project was achieving only half the planned number of flying hours. Reaching this target would catapult Australia’s performance well above international benchmarks making us a world leader in this area.

At this point it was unclear what levers and constraints needed to be addressed in order to achieve this.

What were the complexities that needed to be addressed?

Multiple competing perspectives and points of view from different organisations.

An unbalanced and unclear set of performance metrics and contractual incentives.

Early adoption of bleeding-edge technology; assembly and maintenance of one of the most complex and sophisticated aircraft in the world.

What was the outcome?

We established clear alignment and focus across all organisations and executives (vendor, CASG & Army). This brought the group together with a singular focus to achieve the flying hours target. It also result in improved relationships, outcome-based performance metrics, and revised working practices.

The challenging target required the project to achieve a 56% productivity increase and a 40% reduction in cost of ownership in the next 20 months.

After ten months, the project had achieved a 36% increase in asset productivity and had achieved its full 40% reduction in cost of ownership. So far, this has returned $45 million of value back to the project and the Commonwealth.